Shelley's second TV series was the 1983 medical drama Cutter to Houston. In it, she played Dr. Beth Gilbert, a surgeon. Although the rural (fictional) town of Cutter, Texas, was located just 60 miles from Houston, for ambitious Beth, it seemed a million miles away. Her ambition was to become a surgeon at the prestigious Texas Medical Center, but she needed to serve her apprenticeship at a newly-opened clinic in Cutter clinic before that could happen. So she wasn't really excited there.